Various Artists

After Dark 2

The second installment of Italians Do It Better's After Dark compilation features muscular updates on their buzzy neon template by the likes of Chromatics, Glass Candy, and Mirage. Its assembly line nature also reminds us that while some strains of classic dance music were meticulous and expert, many were cheap and quick.

When it arrived in 2007, Italians Do It Better's After Dark compilation provided a way forward. "Italo survived electroclash," wrote Marc Hogan; indie rock had too. Six years later, dance music has pervaded that genre to the point where discussing specific movements no longer feels relevant; it's just there, and After Dark had a part in that. Its status as a modern indie/dance classic makes it easy to forget to how thin and stitched-together it felt, how delicate its papier-mache disco. Putting aside the compilation's home-printed artwork and lack of jewel case, the album was rife with cover songs, demos, and remixes. Johnny Jewel's return last year with Chromatics and Symmetry was notable for the music's quality but also for its scope: confirmation, finally, that the Italians Do It Better label had gas left in the tank.

There's always been a factory feel to Italians Do It Better, Jewel the enigmatic visionary farming his disco labor out to acolytes and hangers-on. The cast of characters assembled on After Dark 2 supports this; primary vehicles Chromatics and Glass Candy account for nearly half the tracks, but many contributions come from IDIB B-teamers recording their first music in years. If there's an exemplar of the odd IDIB universe, it's Mirage (officially the 24th artist to adopt that moniker according to Discogs) who show up with only their third-ever track; the first two being available only on the original After Dark.

The assembly-line nature of Jewel's productions provides a counterpoint to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, reminding us that while some strains of classic dance music were meticulous and expert, many were cheap and quick. Jewel's ability to pump out quality tracks with a host of collaborators connects him to the faceless electro/disco producers of the 1980s; presenting the tracks as glammy punk-noir fantasies contemporizes him. Jewel is an expert stylist, able to project fashionable cool without exclusivity or mightiness. Never more so than on After Dark 2; the songs here are big and warm, tighter, more muscular updates of the originals, and they make common sadness-- the search for love, forgiveness, intimacy-- feel heroic and communal.

The IDIB rhythms and affectations-- thrumming Italo disco, icy female coos-- are largely unchanged, but the analog boil beneath them is robust. This is important when working with vocalists whose charm lies largely in their steely contempt for excess. Having Glass Candy back in the fold is crucial. Singer Ida No's flat, artless vocals are a perfect foil for Jewel's metronomic synthesizers. She's also the most compelling songwriter: the resplendent "Warm in the Winter" is the headliner, but "The Possessed" and "Beautiful Object" deliver pleasantly sighing choruses. Chromatics sound at home on the wistful "Cherry", and they parry their last album's title track with the nervy "Looking for Love": "I'm still/ Still looking/ Looking for love," killing for it having failed, apparently.

It's in this context that contributions from Farah-- severe and menacing-- and Desire-- easy and sweet-- can be lovely diversions, and that instrumentals from Mike Simonetti and Jewel (as Symmetry) can feel like luxe interludes. The vocoder funk of Mirage's "Let's Kiss" and Twisted Wire's husky piano house offer crucial variety. Lesser lights are afforded the opportunity to be lesser, in other words. They can thank the compilation's album-like feel: After Dark 2 plays more like Johnny Jewel & Friends Present... than a compendium of disparate acts. It updates the IDIB sound without losing its buzzy neon charm, which remains a hugely attractive mode.